Vérités Cachées
by SleepyCookie204
Summary: Arno is not framed for François de la Serre's murder, but consequently he still doesn't know about the Assassins and Templars, unlike Élise. Desperate for help, she is forced to try to explain to Arno about the secret war and make him join the templars if it's necessary. (In-progress)
1. Prologue

**Note: This was just a random idea that came to my head, and this is my first fanfic ever.**

* * *

 **April 22, 1778**

Arno found himself walking around the De la Serre mansion in Versailles, searching for his playmate. Minutes passed, and he still hadn't managed to find her. He sat in the floor, angrily picking up his father's pocket watch from his jacket. He sighed in defeat, finally standing up.

"Alright, you win!" He shouted in the corridor, and soon heard a familiar laughter. He turned to see Élise cheering, and was about to say something but the girl put a finger on his lip.

"You're too bad in this!" She said, smiling at him. He chuckled in response, telling her that he needed a break. She sighed, but then agreed and went to her room. She sat on a chair, boredom eventually catching up with her, until she heard a voice.

"Élise, dear! Come to your father's office!" Julie told her from the corridor.

"Fine, mom." She hesitantly said, standing up and walking to her father's office.

"There you are. Now sit here with us." François ordered and she obeyed, sitting on the chair in front of her parents.

"So, is this about..." Élise started, but Julie interrupted her.

"Yes, this is about the Templars and Assassins. But we're not going to talk about history or ideals this time." Julie said, earning a curious look from her daughter.

"We're going to talk about Arno." François continued, earning an even more curious look from his daughter.

"What about him? His assassin heritage?" Élise asked.

"No, I want to let you know that he can't have any knowledge of anything of this Assassin-Templar war." Julie told her with a very serious look in her face. "At least not until it's time" She completes, looking at François.

"Do you understand, Élise?" François asks.

"Yes. Yes I do, papa." Élise replies.

"Good. You're free to go." He said.

And another vérité cachée was created.

* * *

 **May 5, 1789**

And in the middle of the party, she saw him. She saw Arno, _her_ Arno, and a striking feeling of happiness hit her heart. She then started running to a private place, and he eagerly followed her. She had stood there waiting for him for quite a while, after finally convincing her father to invite Arno.v

"She always did love the chase." He murmured to himself, accidentally bumping into a waiter, causing him to drop the drinks he was carrying.

Élise entered a room, and as Arno passed by, she grabbed him by the arm and brought him into the room.

"You seem to have caused quite a commotion." She told him.

"What can I say? You were always a bad influence."

"You were a worse one."

Their lips met for a long, passionate kiss. Élise then broke it and pushed him away.

"Are you wearing one of my father's suits?"

"Are you wearing a dress?"

"Oh, don't even start. I feel like a mummy wrapped up in this thing!"

"Must be quite an occasion to get you so fancy."

"It's not like that. Truth be told it's a lot of ceremony and pontification. Dull as dirt."

"Well, I'm surprised you actually invited me here."

"Oh don't think it was easy! My father was quite adamant, but you know me, he eventually came around."

"Your father...?"

Suddenly, both of them heard a loud scream of a familiar voice.

"What was that?!" Arno said. Both of them then made their way to the window and tried to look down, but there was nothing. Élise then jumped off it and Arno followed her, both heading to the source of the noise. Arriving at the palace gardens, they both saw half a dozen guards surrounding a corpse.

"Oh god..." Élise murmured, heading for the corpse and opening way through the guards.

"Élise, wait..." Arno started, but as soon as he could see the corpse, he stopped in shock. "Monsieur de la Serre? Monsieur de la Serre!"

"FATHER!" Élise shouted loudly, kneeling with Arno before her father's corpse and desperately looking for any sign of life. She stood up, tears running from her eyes and hitting the corpse, she had lost both her mother and father. Her sad face disappeared and a vengeful face took over, Arno still at his knees with a smaller quantity of tears on his eyes.

"They will pay for this, they will!" She said, louder than she had intended. The crowd of nobles, servants and guards gathering around François' corpse. The sound of gossip between the nobles starting to annoy them. Élise started to walk away, apparently following a trail of blood gone unnoticed by the guard, Arno tried to stop her.

"Élise..." He tried, but she ignored him.

"I will make whoever did this pay, Arno!" She said, determined to bring the killer to justice. "I WILL!"

Arno didn't try to stop her, he wasn't understanding what just happened with François.

"Why would someone kill monsieur De la Serre? He didn't do nothing wrong, did he? There's something else I don't know here." He thought to himself.


	2. A Long Night

**May 5, 1789**

Élise continued following the trail of blood in the _P_ _alais de Versailles'_ gardens, believing that it would lead her to the killer. She was sure that the man responsible for her father's death was an Assassin, but she was aware of the possibility of a coup within the Templar Order itself. The trail eventually brought her to a door, still in the palace, she impatiently kicked the door open, but finds nothing but more blood.

"Merde." She sighs. "Where the hell are you?" She prepares to search more, but is interrupted by Arno's voice.

"Élise! Élise, where are you?" Arno worriedly said. He entered the room, and saw the red-head searching for leads.

"I'm here." She says angrily. "Will you help me find the bastard?" She asks, but he doesn't know what to answer.

"He must have gotten away already, Élise." He hesitantly says.

"I need to know who he is, Arno." She says impatiently. "Are you going to help me or not?"

He lays his hand on her shoulder. "First, you'll need to tell me what the hell is going on."

She sighs. "I promise I'll explain this later.. now please help me!"

They both search the room for any evidence, Arno opens the wardrobe, nothing, the bed, nothing, the table, nothing. "Merde, there is nothing here!" But then he sees a drop of blood, soon followed by another, and another.

"Élise, here." He tells her. "Blood." He starts following the small trail, soon followed by her. It led them through the corridors, and then to a private bedroom. Élise was the first to enter, but there was nothing there.

But then it was Arno who actually found something relevant. He picked up a finely made necklace from the ground. The chain was made of silver and there was a perfect red cross hanging on it. A very small part of the chain was red, red with blood.

"What is this?" He asked, showing the necklace to Élise.

"Oh god..." She eagerly picked the necklace off his hands and examined it, locating the drops of blood. "This... this belongs to..." She starts, but immediately stops, remembering that Arno knew nothing of the Templars.

"What is this, Élise?" He asked, showing a puzzled face to her.

"My father was betrayed, Arno." She started. "This... this belonged to one of his subordinates."

He was even more puzzled by her answer. "Subordinates? What subordinates?"

"I need to go back to the party and talk to someone." She tells him, ignoring his question. "I'll explain all of this tomorrow."

Arno tries to talk to her, but she then hurriedly runs off. He was confused, all of this didn't made sense at all. That cross... he had a small memory of a similar cross. And was trying to remember it, but it was proving to be hard.

* * *

Élise approached her father's trusted advisers: Chrétien Lafrenière, Marie Lévesque, Louis-Michel le Peletier and Charles Gabriel Sivert. As she walked to the advisers' location, she heard the gossip between nobles. "Her father was killed right here!" "She's François de la Serre's daughter" and other annoying statements that only made her sad. She wanted to loudly cry for her father, betrayed by a subordinate of his Order, and she wanted to slowly kill her father's murderer.

"Where is Sivert?" She heard Lafrenière ask le Peletier and Lévesque. "He's disappeared ever since François died!"

Overhearing that, Élise noticed that Sivert indeed wasn't there. Was he also murdered? Or did he play a part on De la Serre's death?

"Don't worry, Chrétien. I'm sure he'll come back." Lévesque told Lafrenière.

"It's not only about his well-being that I'm worried about." Lafrenière answers. "I don't trust Sivert, he's no better than an outlaw."

François never did really trust Sivert, he found him constantly wanting to do things his own, radical way. When they saw her, she immediately cleaned her eyes with a handkerchief, fearing that more tears would drop.

"Oh mademoiselle Élise." Lafrenière started. "We're... sorry for your loss, I still don't know what happened." He completed.

"Neither do I." Élise replied. "Where's Sivert?"

"He's gone..." Lafrenière started, but was interrupted by Lévesque, who with a reassuring smile says "He's gone out to investigate the Grand Master's death, mademoiselle."

"Merci, madame Lévesque." Élise replied. "Monsieur le Peletier, do you know anything of the current situation?"

"No, mademoiselle De la Serre. I haven't even seen Monsieur de la Serre's body." The politician answered.

She sighed, there was something wrong with Lévesque and le Peletier. Lafrenière seemed to be as worried as her, but the two other advisers didn't seem worried at all.

"Well, I presume you three will be astonished with something I've found while investigating my father's death." Élise told them.

Lévesque and le Peletier shared worried looks, while Lafrenière still had his attention on Élise. "What have you found, mademoiselle?" He asked her, taking a step forward on her direction. Élise then picked the Templar necklace from her pocket and gave it to Lafrenière, who examined it and noticed the blood on the silver chain. Lafrenière quickly looked at Élise's neck, and noticed that she still had her own necklace with her.

"This was done by one of our own..." Lafrenière assumes, looking at Lévesque and le Peletier. "Where did you find this, mademoiselle?"

"Me and..." She hesitantly started, but decided not to involve Arno in this. "I followed a trail of blood near my father's corpse..." She remarks, a tear appearing in her eye after remembering the moment. "And it led me to a room, where I found this bloodstained Templar necklace." She completed.

"You've done good, mademoiselle Élise." Lafrenière says with a reassuring smile. "This was of great help, it confirms some of my suspicions."

Élise nods, and then tells the advisers that they can meet later and discuss about the uncertain future. She walks off the room, the tears start to appear in her eyes, but they start to disappear as she remembers the brief moment of happiness she shared with Arno only minutes before. She begins to search for Arno, but he is the one to find her first in the room she left him. "Who did you find me?" Élise asks him.

"I still want an explanation, and I was becoming worried with you" He replies, caressing her cheek. She noticed his eyes were still wet, after all he also loved her father, he adopted him in a moment where he was in panic after seeing his biological father just die in front of him, and history seems to repeat itself.

"I promise I'll explain at the estate" She assures him, moving towards him and hugging him tightly. "The world just seems to be falling directly on my shoulders, my father died too soon." She murmures, tears forming on her face, again. They stay in the embrace for more time than they should, and then they walk to the carriage.

* * *

"So you're going to stay in Versailles?" He asks, while the carriage transports them to the estate.

"For longer than I originally would, I guess." She lays her head on his lap. "Once I explain all of this, you'll understand everything."

The carriage finally arrives at the De la Serre estate, and they both walk off it. Élise holds his hand, trying to forget what happened in this terrible night. As they both enter the estate, they are surprised by Olivier, the estate's butler and lead servant.

"Mademoiselle De la Serre!" He shouts upon seeing Élise and then hesitantly looks at Arno, but seems to ignore him. "They're... these ruffians! They have raided the estate, I managed to hide, they're upstairs!"

"Merde!" Both of them say, and Élise immediately goes to a nearby table and opens the drawer, picking two daggers and giving one of them to Arno. The table was for urgent surprises, like this one.

"Mademoiselle, you and... and Monsieur Dorian here need to run!" Olivier starts, but is ignored by them. They make their way to the upper floors, but are seen by the ruffians. Élise quickly throws her dagger at the ruffian's face, and then removes it. The man's scream alerted the other thugs, who then appeared and quickly prepared to eliminate the couple.

"Arpinon, what's going on!?" The bandit leader shouts from another room. Arpinon tells him of the "intruders", and the leader appears and confronts Élise and Arno.

"Monsieur Duchesneau, don't worry, I'll kill them right here!" Arpinon told the leader, and Duchesneau told him to continue. Élise quickly dodged a brute ruffian's axe swing and proceeded to stab him with her dagger, but he continued alive, with a wound on his belly. Arno engaged in a fight with another ruffian who was wielding a dagger like him, swiftly blocking the bandit's attack and piercing his blade on his throat. Élise then pushed the brute on Arno's direction, and he impaled the ruffian through the heart.

"Fucking morons!" Arpinon roars, ordering three other ruffians to engage the couple. A ruffian wielding a sword faces Arno, and gains the advantage for a brief moment, but Arno dodges three consecutive attacks and punches his nose. The thug's hand then goes to his bleeding nose, and Arno uses the moment as an opportunity to knock him unconscious with his dagger's hilt. He then grabs the ruffian's sword from the floor and slashes the throat of another thug who was about to strike Élise. She proceeds to punch the remaining thug, shattering his teeth and snapping his neck. She then picks the thug's pistol from his corpse and points it at Arpinon, but realizes Duchesneau is the real leader here. However, Duchesneau is quicker and manages to escape and lock the door he entered.

"Duchesneau! Fucking snake, mercy!" Arpinon drops on his knees and pleads for mercy. Arno tells Élise to leave him be, but she then whispers on the ruffian's ear "You should have thought twice before sneaking on MY family's estate!" before kicking his face and thus, leaving him unconscious. She turns to Arno, if it wasn't for him, she would probably be dead now, it was difficult fighting with such a fancy dress.

"And again, I'm not understanding nothing!" He says, louder than he intended. But she pouses her finger on his mouth, whispering in his ears that they have to go and interrogate Duchesneau. Arno tries to open the door Duchesneau locked, but Élise impatiently kicks it open. Duchesneau turns to see his attackers, drawing dual pistols from his jacket and pointing them at them.

"Let me go quietly, and I won't hurt you two." He nervously says, still impressed and scared that two people managed to defeat all his men. However, he knew of their alignment, he was not a hired muscle like Arpinon, and he feared for his own life. Élise noticed that there was some paperwork on his pockets, "So he isn't just some common criminal". She thinks to herself.

Impatient, Duchesneau opens fire and one of the bullets hits Arno's shoulder, while the other misses Élise by a few centimeters. Arno notices that Duchesneau's pistols had three barrels each one. He picks up the dagger he was using before from his suit's pocket and throws it at the ruffian. The dagger encounters Duchesneau's belly, who screams in pain and drops on the floor still alive. Élise walks to the thug and throws the dagger out, kneeling before him and trying to stop the bleeding, succeeding.

Élise then stands up and looks at Arno, his shoulder bleeding from the bullet he took. "Oh god... I help this sack of crap and then leave you there!" she exclaims in disbelief for herself and then tries to stanch Arno's wound. He also helps, and their team work proves to be effective.

"This was a long night huh?" He tells her with a weak smile.

"And it still ain't over." She answers, pointing at the screaming figure on the floor. "He isn't a common ruffian, he was here for my father's documents."


	3. Revelations

**May 6, 1789**

Duchesneau was blindfolded and tied in a wooden chair on François de la Serre's office, his clothes full of blood and his face bruised. Élise had left him there while she changed her clothes, not wanting to spent any more time with that dreadful dress and putting on her usual outfit. Arno had removed his suit and was only with his white shirt, once shiny and now bloodstained. She had dispensed Olivier and the other servants.

"Let's see what this cocksucker knows." She told Arno, but he shakes his head.

"No, first you're going to explain all this merde to me!" He starts, taking a step closer to Élise. "You promised me back in the palace."Impatient, Élise gives him a visibly angry look, but he ignores her gaze. "Come on, Élise."

Élise sighed, but then decided that it was better for her to explain the situation right away. "Sit here, Arno." They both sat on the sofa. "I don't even know who to start... I wish my father was here." She tells him, a tear dropping from her eye.

"You can do this, Élise." Arno told her with a reassuring smile, pulling her closer and hugging her tightly. Élise's hands then traveled to Arno's face, and she pulled his face closer for a much needed kiss. Their lips met for longer than she intended, leaving them gasping for air.

"Alright, let me try to explain..." She told him, now determined. "My father was the head of a... a secret organization." Arno gave her a strange look, but then nodded for her to continue. "This organization seeks peace and order, the contrary of chaos and anarchy. But it seems someone from within his very inner circle betrayed him, and..." She tried to continue, but couldn't.

"But someone close to him betrayed him and murdered him?" Arno tried to complement, and she nodded. "And that Red Cross belongs to one of his subordinates like you told me earlier?" He questioned. But Élise reached a concealed necklace from her neck with her hand;

"No, it is the symbol of our Order." She told him, showing her own necklace with the red cross to him. "All this time that we were separated, that I traveled to Paris and other places to study..." She continued. "Most of it was me training to be the new Grand Master of the Order, even though some time was spent on normal studies."

Arno's face was filled with curiosity. "And why didn't I know about this... this Order of yours?" The question shot right through her face, she hadn't expected that question, and she didn't know how to answer it.

"My parents prevented me from telling you about it, at least not until the time comes." She nervously answers. "I hated lying to you, but I needed to."

Arno sighed, he seemed annoyed that he had been fooled for all this years, and by the person that he cared and loved the most. "Why? Why did they prevent you from telling me?" Another question she didn't expected and didn't wanted. She didn't wanted to reveal his Assassin heritage to him, but she also wasn't eager to lie to him again.

"They were deciding if you would be inducted or not..." She started, but was soon interrupted by him.

"I can see through your eyes. There is something else you're not telling me, Élise." He tells her roughly.

"Ah. Alright you got me..." She decided to tell him everything. "Our Order, the Knights Templar or Templar Order, are long time enemies with the Assassin Brotherhood." She started. "Our ideals are different from the Assassins', so we're engaged in a millennia old secret war between ourselves."

"I see, and why are you telling me this?" Arno says with a curious face and a strong interrogative tone.

"Your father... he was an Assassin." She says, and Arno instantly gives her a surprised... and scared face. "And no, before you even ask... my father wasn't responsible for his murder." She quickly completes.

"This is so confusing..." He murmures. "And why was your father killed by one of his own? And if your fa..."

"My father and the leader of the Assassins, the Comte de Mirabeau, were attempting to establish a truce between Assassin and Templar. But members of each order weren't very fond of the decision, some of them were even exiled due to their attempts to destroy the truce." She interrupts him.

"What about my father? Who killed him?" Arno questioned.

"I don't know, my father never told me who killed him, but assured me that he had nothing to do with his death." She answered.

"That better be true..." Arno said with darker eyes.

"It is." She assured him. "I know I haven't told you about this whole mess for all this years, but I swear that we had nothing to do with his death!"

Arno sighed, he looked at the door to Monsieur de la Serre's office and decided to help Élise catch her father's killer.

"I believe in you, but your father's death..." He started but was soon interrupted by her.

"Was not your fault." She told him, successfully already knowing what he was about to say. "The one to blame for his death is whatever coward stabbed him in the back, and I think I got a theory."

"How are you going to be so sure?" He asks calmly. Élise looks at him with dedicated eyes and points at the door to De la Serre's office.

"That scumbag, Duchesneau, I believe I have seen him in one of the Templar meetings." She clarifies.

"Are these meetings the daring partings that I wasn't invited, and that I almost always had to break-in?" He says with a smile. She rewards him with a strong and natural smile.

"Oh those parties... I wished we could go back in time..." She says with a sincere tone.

"Oh Élise, you don't know how much I also wished that." He says, smiling but also almost crying. She stands up from the sofa and steals his hand, making him also stand up. She pulls him closer and hugs him, but none of them show wish for a kiss or else.

"Old times, Arno... Old times..." She tells him, wiping a tear from her eye. Both leave the embrace and head for De la Serre's office, holding their hands together.

As they make their way to the office, Élise and Arno try to talk to each other.

"So, even though you know of your Assassin heritage..." She starts. "You're still going to help me?" She completes, smiling at him but also showing a curious face.

"Anything for you." He simply answers her. She smiles at her, holding his hand even more tightly.

"United." She murmurs softly, smiling.

"United. Always." He repeats, pulling her closer for a kiss. She hugs him, before their hungry lips meet and stay sealed for a long time. He wraps his hand around her head, while his other hand lands on her back. Élise is the first to leave the embrace and the kiss, opening the door to François de la Serre's office and observing the unconscious Duchesneau.

* * *

"There he is..." Élise murmurs with an impatient and somewhat angry tone, getting closer to the unconscious bandit leader. "Wake up, shithead!" She angrily orders, kicking the ruffian's wounded stomach and punching him in the head, between his eyes. Duchesneau spits blood, raising his head to try and stop her to further hit him. Élise tries to control herself, and Arno lays his hand on her shoulder, whispering to her that he's already awake.

"What do you want with me..." Duchesneau struggles to start, spitting more blood on the ground. "I'm a simple... a simple thief!" He tries to lie, but is not very successful and Élise punches his face in return.

"I just want you to tell me something, friend." She starts, gazing interrogatively at the ruffian. "Why were you wearing this in your jacket?" She questions, showing the silver initiation Templar pin to him. He gazes her with a desperate look, and then looks at Arno, silently pleading for help. Arno simply ignores him, and nods to Élise for her to continue.

"Huh... I just found this in the mansion!" Duchesneau bluffs again, but Élise again kicks his stomach. "I'm not lying! I swear for my life!" He shouts, spitting blood on the red head's shirt, receiving another punch as a response.

"I know you're lying to me, scumbag!" She starts, placing her knee on his bruised stomach. "You're in the Order, ain't you?" She finally questions, drawing a short knife from her pocket and threatening him.

"Alright, alright! I'll tell you everything!" He starts, almost crying helplessly. "It was that man, Sivert!" He finally completes.

"Sivert..." She murmurs to herself. "And how did you met him? How were you even initiated in the Order?!" She questions, pointing her knife to his throat.

"I used to work for the King of Beggars, and this Sivert fellow introduced him, me and some other underlings to the Order." He starts, trying to formulate his words. "I also helped Sivert in some of his smuggling operations, and he ordered me to find François de la Serre's residence and steal his paperwork!" He completed, looking to the ground to avoid the red head's gaze.

"While Sivert murdered him!" She roared at Duchesneau's face. "Well unfortunately François de la Serre's daughter arrived just in time to stop you, didn't she?" Élise mocked him with a cruel and ruthless smile.

"I had no idea..." Duchesneau started, but decided to change his words. "Will you let me go now?" He questions, forcefully smiling at her.

"I don't know..." She answers. "Arno! Release him on the streets!" She ordered Arno, and he hesitantly untied Duchesneau and walked to the downstairs door.

 _"So Sivert was responsible for father's death... he is going to pay for this. But Sivert doesn't seems smart enough to make himself the new Grand Master, he was probably hired or bribed by somebody else."_ She thinks to herself, trying to understand this conspiracy against her father.

Arno opens the door and angrily throws Duchesneau out, closing the door. He hears the guard's shouts, Duchesneau was likely wanted by them. _Good riddance, monsieur Duchesneau._ He thinks to himself before going to Élise's location.

"We need some sleep." Arno tells her with a visibly tired face.

"Yeah, we do." She answers, quietly entering her room. Arno heads for his room, thinking about what he saw during this dreadful night. He normally didn't stayed awake until 4 in the morning, but this time there was a strong reason. He was impressed by the strong and dedicated Élise he saw during Duchesneau's interrogatory. Finally he laid on the bed, getting the sleep he was needing.


End file.
